Oh Red Heart Photography you have done it again… you've brought us another incredible offbeat couple rocking a sweet Hawaiian wedding! This time it's Christina and Justin and their awesome wedding style.

I love the groom's all black, "Johnny Cash" look. It's one of those outfits that you NEVER see grooms wearing for an Hawaiian beach wedding. And, I'm sorry, what shoes are they wearing!?

Oh yeah, that's what I thought… awesome shoes.

And don't even try to act like you aren't in love with Christina's ink!

Trust me, you want to go to the Red Heart Photography blog to see more of the incredible photos from Christina and Justin's 09-09-09 wedding on the Big Island. And hopefully we'll be getting the full scoop on the wedding soon!

The final post for Offbeat Bride's "Elephun Elephant Day" is some adorable wedding porn taken by Megan, the offbeat intern…

I was on location in the Pacific Palisades taking photos of a fellow Offbeat Bride's wedding when we all heard this great commotion — yelling, cheering, tambourines, etc. — and when I checked it out I realized it was wedding parade for an Indian wedding!

After getting over the initial happy spurt of seeing this wonderful procession, I then noticed the huge elephant lumbering up the hill being ridden by an adorably freaked-out groom holding on for dear life!

Wedding cuteness overload I tell you.

Check out the slideshow below for more photos of a cute groom riding a cute elephant and I hope you enjoyed this first ever "Elephun Elephant Week."

I've written before about my decisions around calling the pictures of real weddings that I feature on this site "Wedding Porn." I consider the phrase a harmless, non-sexual twist on the voyeuristic thrill many folks planning their weddings get out of seeing other people's wedding ideas.

That said, I'm going to come out and admit that there IS one component of wedding porn that starts to feel just as unhealthy as typical porn: that's when lusting after some fantasy of what you could have starts to interfere with the reality of enjoying what you've got.

I see this when brides buy a dress, and then find another dress, and then pick a third dress because they keep seeing dresses they like online. I see it when people come up with five different wedding themes over the course of two months, and still can't quiiite decide. I read it between the lines of commenters who's enthusiasm for someone else's wedding starts to slip over the edge from inspiration ("ooh, I might want to integrate something like that in my wedding") to duplication ("I MUST HAVE THOSE EXACT SHOES WHERE DID YOU GET THEM TELL ME NOW NOW NOW!")

It worries me a little…

Continue reading "When to stop looking at wedding porn" →

why is it called Wedding Porn? Since this is a woman-friendly community, why is it called porn? My wedding pictures won't be pornographic. I have no problems with porn, it's useful, especially women porn (for women, by women). I'm a sex-positive feminist. But why do we participate in "wedding pornography"? -Brady

Great question! "Wedding Porn" is a term I appropriated from an old Salon.com article by Heather Havrilesky. The phrase is meant as a playful take on the thrill of gawking at images from other people's weddings.

For me, this appropriation of the word "porn" has nothing to do with sex or even gender — it's about covetous voyeurism. In this context, "porn" simply refers to image that incites desire. Sure: when you're horny, you want sex porn. But when you're hungry, you want food porn. When you're feeling consumeristic, you want shopping porn. And when you're planning a wedding, you want wedding porn.

Continue reading "Why "wedding porn"?" →